Where do I start? Arriving in Fort Dauphin was a whirlwind of new people, places and culture. The first weekend gave me an opportunity to explore a bit and get my bearings, which was helped by a town tour organised by SEED and a very animated guide Marcece. He told me all about the history of the town and pointed out all the local highlights such as the beaches, the port and the well renowned “prix unique”. This was a supermarket in the loosest terms. Essentially a small room filled with items you can’t find on the market- priced up to sell to vazaha like me craving a mars bar or branded toiletries.
I think you’d be hard pressed to spend more than 20,000 ariary (about £5) a week on your food shop here if you shopped in the market and bought seasonal items, and I was surprised that people don’t really barter for the price here like they do in Antananarivo. I’m used to cutting their price by 4 to get down from the prix vazaha (foreigner price). The staple of most staff in the office is the classic “rice and beans” for lunch. A small little shack that serves a surprisingly tasty (and VERY filling) meal for just over a pound. Add a little bit of Sakai, which is a chilli sauce that will blow your head off, and you’ve got a decent flavour. I’m not a fan of the greens that come with it which resemble spinach, but that’s hardly news to anyone!
The gas hob in my kitchen is broken, so we have been experimenting with the charcoal burner outside for evening meals. I feel like I’ve made serious progress since the first attempt, which consisted of me standing over the coal blowing it and fanning for hours unsuccessfully. Yesterday I even made fritters with vegetables, spices and some oil and they tasted damn fine. It definitely takes a lot more effort than normal cooking that I am used to, and you can’t just go get a ready meal or go to a restaurant if it goes wrong, so I felt the pressure when assuring my housemate that my recipe would go to plan! To be fair, he is very easily impressed by food.
It rained constantly for my first 4 days, accompanied by strong winds. This meant I couldn’t go to the famous Libanona beach which looks incredible! It’s been a bit more sunny since then and looking into 28+ degrees next week which might make the cold showers a bit more bearable. Being a typical brit I can’t help myself but complain about it being too hot or too cold 24/7. The good thing about the Malagasy winter is there are way less insects hanging around. Although one of the girls needed rat poison to get rid of her resident friend, I haven’t heard too many horror stories of unwanted visitors in the home here. There was one rather large cockroach that escaped our attempts to remove him (it was absolutely a him). The “Parasy” is another unique insect that lives in the sand and buries itself into the sole of your feet where it lays it’s eggs. If the parasy isn’t removed then it can hatch the eggs and burst through the skin. Today Melissa had one removed by the resident parasy expert Oscar.
On Saturday night there was however a casino night! Put together by one of the guys from the SEED team, it was an amazing feat of creativity- using beans as chips for poker by candlelight. The best part of player poker for money here is the small notes such as 100/200 ariary which you can bet for just the equivalent of 2p or 4p. Nonetheless I crashed out after about an hour, getting a bit bold with my bluffing. After, we hit the local nightlife but as it was diabolical weather there weren’t many people out (taxis and tuk-tuks don’t go out in bad weather). The chosen spot was a beach bar called “surf’s up”. I ate grilled octopus and enjoyed the music, but I will definitely be going back for the famous karaoke nights to see what it’s like when it’s a bit more lively. By 3am I think everyone was exhausted, typical bed times here rarely pass 9 o clock.
Meeting the team and getting to know the projects that SEED do was the main goal for this week, as well as getting my head around my new role. The two main projects I am working on are a maternal/child health education programme and a SRHR/ HIV focused project. I will be writing much more about those in the following weeks, but for now I’m enjoying seeing what SEED do and it’s very unique to see such a community-focused approach.
Going into the weekend I spent an amazing day at Libanona beach, the sea was super calm so I could swim quite far out and look at the fish. Saturday night got a bit lively in the aptly named “Florida” nightclub, which was buzzing with great music and lots of dancing! I’m having a relaxing Sunday getting vegetables at the market and looking forward to the coming week. Meanwhile, if there’s anything you’d like to know about Madagascar/ Fort Dauphin or something in particular about the role then comment and I’ll try and include it in my next posts.
Thanks for reading!
MADAlife 